Undergraduate TLO Awards Round 11

It is proposed through this Pediatric Adaptive Technology Community Based Project TLO that engineering students will work as part of an interdisciplinary team on the development of adaptive technology targeted for young children with cortical blindness. As part of this program, students will enroll in a special topics course where they will be exposed to a very unique interdisciplinary and transformational community based experience. As part of this course they will attend lectures providing basic introductory information in neuroscience, child development, rehabilitation provision models such as International Classification of function (ICF) and Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT), developmental disabilities, and assistive technology principles including assessment, construction, and design. They will form interdisciplinary teams, and design, construct, and test appropriate assistive technology that address the needs for identified children with developmental disabilities in the community. Students will also be exposed to a clinical observation period. During this period students will meet with rehabilitation pediatric therapists and observe therapy sessions. In addition, students will attend a presentation by Dr. Cole Galloway, a recognized expert in early pediatric mobility and the director of the mobility and design studio at the University of Delaware

Student Criteria:

This TLO is open to engineering and physical therapy students. 

Students will be interviewed

Categories:
Service Learning

UNF Opera Study Abroad is a four week long summer opera program offering UNF students the opportunity to gain professional European experience by performing complete operatic works in professional opera theaters with accompaniment of professional symphony orchestra under the instruction of outstanding international faculty. The program also offers one-on-one voice lessons, master classes, individual language coachings, orchestra concerts, plus cultural attractions and sigh seeing excursions. 

Student Criteria:

UNF Music Students

Categories:
International

This Transformational Learning Opportunity (TLO) will provide 10 students enrolled in CGN 3930 or CGN 4931, Water Resources Field Camp, opportunities to participate in direct career-relevant field experiences, interact with a water resources science and engineering learning community, and experience a wider global awareness of the tensions between infrastructure and the environment.  The proposed TLO will support UNF strategic objectives regarding student global awareness.  The proposed course will include traditional classroom meetings and an intensive field experience that will be the focus of the TLO.  The proposed field experience will take place in mid-July 2016 with field base camps situated in Portland, Oregon and Newport, Oregon. Over a 10 day period students will participate in 5 field trips to an array of engineering projects focused upon water resources and environmental management. Project sites to be visited include Bonneville Lock & Dam, Spirit Lake at Mount St. Helens National Monument, Wasco Dam, Mount Hood, Newport Harbor, and the Cape Perpetua National Marine Reserve. The field visits will take the students through the hydrologic cycle and follow rainfall runoff or snow melt from the mountains to the sea.  Along the way, Dr. Brown and the subject-matter experts will illustrate important linkages between water resources infrastructure (e.g. dams, harbors, tunnels) and their environmental effects.  In this way, each student will develop a better grasp of the importance of balancing the two.

Student Criteria:

This TLO is for students enrolled in CGN 3930 or CGN 4931. Graduate students enrolled in CGN 6900 will also be considered although these students will not be eligible for undergraduate TLO scholarship funds. Graduate Students can contact the graduate school directly about applying for individual awards.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

This TLO is a six credit philosophy and religious studies course with Foreign Culture designation in the summer of 2017 that will travel to four cities in China: Guilin, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Beijing. This course focuses on the foundational assumptions that led to the development of distinctive features of Chinese culture in terms of philosophy and religion. We will explore philosophical and religious issues in terms of texts and practices, and how these classical assumptions are and are not still in play today. Throughout the course, students will become conversant in the three main influential traditions of China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism

Student Criteria:

Enrollment in the 6 credit philosophy and religious studies course Summer A 2017. This course will also have the foreign culture (FC) designation.

Categories:
International

The main goal of this TLO is to give students an authentic, immersive experience in biomedical research. The UNF Biology department offers coursework in the areas of Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry. These courses give students a firm educational foundation in the core concepts of Biology and prepare them for medical, professional, and graduate programs. However, traditional classroom experiences cannot fully replicate true hands-on research. Biomedical researchers must be comfortable “working without a net”, unsure of where the research will take them, but confident enough in their skills and abilities to fully explore complex biological pathways. It is only through doing research that students can learn to rebound from failed experiments and explore science that has no “right answer”, unlike what they may be accustomed to in their coursework. This will broaden student's views of science beyond that of black and white answers, to more fully understand the nuances of medical research .Students will work directly with Dr. Ellis in the research lab from the summer of 2016 through the 2016-2017 academic year and will be expected to commit a minimum of 6 hours a week to this project in blocks of 3 hours apiece.

Student Criteria:

This TLO will be open to students who have successfully completed either BSC2012 (General Biology III) or MCB2010 (Microbiology).

A background in Biology (i.e. Biology major) is preferred, but not required.

Factors that will be considered include success in relevant coursework, career interest in the biomedical sciences, and willingness and ability to commit large segments of time (6- 9 hours a week in blocks of at least 3 hour increments) to the TLO experience.

 

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

The Spanish Study Abroad Program at the University of Cantabria offers advanced Spanish students the opportunity of studying language and culture at one of the 15 top universities in Spain. The program consists of five weeks in Santander, during which the students take an intensive language course taught by accredited instructors from the University of Cantabria, and a three-credit-hour culture class with a UNF faculty member (María Ángeles Fernández Cifuentes). Students will earn six hours of credit for the completion of the two courses. Classes will meet four days a week (Monday-Thursday) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The students benefit from a rigorous academic program while they also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in Spanish culture. Students will also travel to Burgos, Bilbao, Peñafiel and Segovia to view firsthand examples of art and architecture.

Student Criteria:

Advanced level Spanish students

Categories:
International

This proposal requests support for the sixth year of funding for a 3-credit undergraduate course focused on the ecology of sharks. This course will be taught by Dr. Gelsleichter during Summer Session C, 2016. The course provides hands-on training in coastal biology research to UNF undergraduates by directly involving them in a long-running, federally-supported research project focused on examining shark abundance in northeast Florida. The field-based training that students receive is augmented by classroom-based activities, such as group discussions, hands-on laboratory assignments, field trips, and research seminars presented by Dr. Gelsleichter, UNF Biology graduate students, and visiting scientists.

Student Criteria:

Although we will show preference for students who have completed General Biology I, II and III, we will also be willing to accept a small number of highly motivated freshman to provide gateway experiences in science. 

A preference will also be given to students who enroll in Dr. Gelsleichter's Spring 2015 course in Shark Biology

This TLO proposal requests funding for ten COEHS students, to complete the final portion of their internship at our Partner International Professional Development School (IPDS) and an affiliated secondary school in the Central American country of Belize. Students meeting the academic qualifications who desire this international experience will travel to the Kuxlin Ha Government Primary School or Belmopan Comprehensive High School in Belmopan, Belize where they will spend the final three weeks working in one of these Schools that are affiliated with the University of Belize. Unique about this experience is that UNF Interns will be matched with Belizean Teachers at the Elementary or Secondary levels and will collaborate with these teachers on instructional strategies and best practices in very diverse and challenging situations.

Student Criteria:

This short-term internship is available to all qualified education majors at the PreK, Elementary, Middle, Special Education, K-12, Art Education K-12, Physical Education K-12 and Music Education K-12 levels.

 

Students must be seniors in their final semester at UNF.

They must have grades of B or better in both Field Lab I & II. 

Students must be in good standing with the university and the College of Education and Human Services. 

Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or better. 

Students must have passed all parts of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam.

Categories:
Field Experience

This TLO will include a number of off site visits, which will provide experiential learning to the students, on top of their regular chemistry curriculum. The outcome of the combined effort would be a better understanding of the materials science research area, and more importantly how different STEM disciplines and expertise are working together to improve the properties of materials. The Spring 2016 TLO will run independently of a course. Dr. Lampropoulos is scheduled to teach inorganic chemistry and inorganic chemistry lab in the spring, and students will be recruited from these two courses. 

Student Criteria:

Dr. Lampropoulos is scheduled to teach inorganic chemistry and inorganic chemistry lab in the spring, and students will be recruited from these two course

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

The goal of the proposed TLO is to employ marine natural product drug discovery as a tool for introducing cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to undergraduates. This TLO will afford five UNF undergraduate students with hands-on training in the scientific inquiry process. This TLO will yield student outcomes that include enhancement of analytical, communication, and critical thinking skills as well as increased global awareness. These TLO outcomes will prepare students for a wide variety of careers (e.g. medicine, research). UNF has a large group of Biology and Chemistry majors with interests in biomedical and marine research, and this TLO aims to enhance educational experiences for this group.

Student Criteria:

UNF biology, chemistry students, and other majors interested in biomedical research. Students are expected to register for at least four credit hours of CHM4910 (Chemical Research), and have at least 9-12 hours/week to devote to research.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

For the study of art and art history, the museums and archaeological sites of Rome, Florence and Pompeii are incomparable.  The 2016 program will be scheduled for approximately six weeks  and will include an introduction to Italian language and culture in Massa before traveling to Rome. Students will have the rich experience of living in Rome where the majority of the program is centered. The living arrangements are in the St. John’s University Rome campus with dormitory facilities and kitchenettes so students have to learn how to shop with Italians, thus being exposed to an added dimension of Italian life.  St.John’s is located near the Lepanto metro stop and students learn to utilize the transportation system. They will also have many opportunities to study and present oral reports in some of the most important museums in the world including the Naples Archaeological Museum (where the majority of the finds from the Vesuvian sites buried in 79 are housed), the Vatican Museums (home not only to the Sistine Chapel but works from antiquity to the modern) to the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Uffizi and the Accademia in Florence.  They will meet contemporary Italian artists MArco Zeno, Rodolfo LAcquaniti and Rossella Vasta.

Student Criteria:

Students must have at least a 2.75 GPA and must be of at least sophomore standing.

Students will be interviewed by the Academic Director of the program.

Students are encouraged to take either  ARH 2000, ARH 2050 or ARH 2051.

Students are thoroughly briefed about the physical rigors of the program with its demands of walking, climbing stairs and maneuvering cobblestones and archeological sites and the intensive nature of the lecture and class schedules

Categories:
International

The purpose of this course is to advance students’ understanding of nursing and health care from a global perspective. Thailand is an excellent place for global health transformational learning because it provides students an encounter with a very different culture and an opportunity to discover the beliefs, values and experiences that they share. This is particularly relevant as they compare and contrast Thai traditional health care with the Western medicine that we practice.

 

Students take a course at the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing where they learn about nursing education, traditional Thai health care and community-based faculty research. Associated field experiences involve interacting with Thai faculty, students and community workers as they visit community hospitals and clinics, village centers, local homes and a traditional Thai massage school. This study abroad experience also includes a short stay in a rural village, where they will have the opportunity to understand the activities of the Population and Community Development Association through interaction with the hill tribes. To get to the village they take a boat, ride elephants and hike through lush Thai forest. Translators who speak English, Thai and the local dialect of the hill tribes accompany them. 

Student Criteria:

Nursing students

Categories:
International

The Strasbourg French language and culture study abroad program consists of five weeks in France during which the UNF students have French classes 15 hours a week (total 60 contact hours) where native speaker instructors teach entirely in French and their classmates come from all over the world. They live with French families with whom they take two meals a day, so their immersion experience continues outside the classroom, and real cultural contact fills the greater part of most days as they navigate the city independently on foot and on public transportation (and most travel outside the city is by train). Three to four afternoons a week, Dr. Schwam-Baird teaches the culture class (Faces of France), which examines social, political, and cultural issues in contemporary France with insight into their historical context, and which includes the perspective of France as part of the construction of Europe. As part of the culture course, students participate in many excursions such as afternoon visits to places of interest in the city, one-day excursions in the region around Strasbourg, and a long weekend in Paris.

Student Criteria:

The program is open to all majors and minors, but in order to participate, students must have the equivalent of a year of college French study.

Students must be in good academic standing, but there is no specific GPA minimum.

Categories:
International

Taking place in South Africa, this course provides a hands-on application of economic principles focused in three related areas.

In this course students will develop a deeper understanding of the political and economic history of South Africa, while visiting important historical and cultural sites in Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope. Students will better understand the opportunities and obstacles faced by workers and families living in South Africa while visiting Langa Township.    

Student Criteria:

This TLO is associated with the Spring 2017 course ECO 4956 Study Abroad South Africa.

 

This Transformational Learning Opportunity will utilize the St. Johns River, a vital community asset, to build connections between diverse academic disciplines. Through a combination of curricular and co-curricular experiences students will develop a deep understanding of the St. Johns River, its importance to surrounding communities and the issues threatening the River’s future. As a result, students will develop a sense of place, undergo personal growth and have an opportunity to explore research opportunities and potential career fields. 

Student Criteria:

The St. Johns River Experience is open to all undergraduate students, with a focus on recruiting freshman and sophomores. This emphasis is aligned with the Environmental Center strategic focus on recruiting students that exhibit leadership potential early in their academic career and retraining those students by offering a set of unique experiential learning and research opportunities.

Categories:
Field Experience
Undergraduate Research

The research methodology utilized in this project will provide an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to learn and understand new and exciting tools that are being employed in biomedical research. This TLO will allow students the chance to learn cell culture and molecular genetic techniques they would not ordinarily learn in the classroom. Furthermore, students will use these skills to address important questions in skeletal muscle biology. Ultimately, this TLO will afford students the opportunity to conduct independent projects that will include characterizing the regulation of genes that are differentially expressed during muscle wasting. The initial work for this project will occur in my laboratory at UNF during the 2016-2017 academic year. Then immediately after the 2017 Spring semester, in collaboration with Dr. Xiao-Fan Wang, Dr. Tso-Pang Yao, and Dr. Monte Willis, an additional phase of the project will be conducted during a 10-12 day trip to Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang, Dr. Yao, and Dr. Willis are leaders in the field of molecular and cell biology, molecular skeletal muscle physiology and molecular cardiac muscle physiology and they have generously offered space in their laboratories for UNF students to observe and learn techniques essential for conducting cell biology, molecular muscle physiology and molecular genomic studies, which cannot currently be accomplished at UNF. Providing UNF students with a research project that requires them to design and execute experiments in the laboratory helps develop an important sense of ownership and independence.

Student Criteria:

Students who are majors in Biology and have an interest in the biomedical field will be given preference, however any student who is able to effectively demonstrate and articulate their reasons for wanting to participate in this program will also be given an opportunity.

Students who are freshman or sophomores will have to successfully complete General Biology I in order to participate.

Students who are juniors will be required to have successfully completed General Biology I and at least one of the other upper division courses listed above.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

This TLO proposal requests funding for ten COEHS students, to complete the final portion of their internship at our Partner International Professional Development School (IPDS) and an affiliated secondary school in the Central American country of Belize. Students meeting the academic qualifications who desire this international experience will travel to the Kuxlin Ha Government Primary School or Belmopan Comprehensive High School in Belmopan, Belize where they will spend the final three weeks working in one of these Schools that are affiliated with the University of Belize. Unique about this experience is that UNF Interns will be matched with Belizean Teachers at the Elementary or Secondary levels and will collaborate with these teachers on instructional strategies and best practices in very diverse and challenging situations.

Student Criteria:

This short-term internship is available to all qualified education majors at the PreK, Elementary, Middle, Special Education, K-12, Art Education K-12, Physical Education K-12 and Music Education K-12 levels.

 

Students must be seniors in their final semester at UNF.

They must have grades of B or better in both Field Lab I & II. 

Students must be in good standing with the university and the College of Education and Human Services. 

Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or better. 

Students must have passed all parts of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam.

Categories:
Field Experience

 

This Transformational Learning Opportunity will utilize the St. Johns River, a vital community asset, to build connections between diverse academic disciplines. Through a combination of curricular and co-curricular experiences students will develop a deep understanding of the St. Johns River, its importance to surrounding communities and the issues threatening the River’s future. As a result, students will develop a sense of place, undergo personal growth and have an opportunity to explore research opportunities and potential career fields. 

Student Criteria:

The St. Johns River Experience is open to all undergraduate students, with a focus on recruiting freshman and sophomores. This emphasis is aligned with the Environmental Center strategic focus on recruiting students that exhibit leadership potential early in their academic career and retraining those students by offering a set of unique experiential learning and research opportunities.

Categories:
Field Experience
Undergraduate Research

UNF Opera Study Abroad is a four week long summer opera program offering UNF students the opportunity to gain professional European experience by performing complete operatic works in professional opera theaters with accompaniment of professional symphony orchestra under the instruction of outstanding international faculty. The program also offers one-on-one voice lessons, master classes, individual language coachings, orchestra concerts, plus cultural attractions and sigh seeing excursions. 

Student Criteria:

UNF Music Students

Categories:
International

This TLO is a six credit philosophy and religious studies course with Foreign Culture designation in the summer of 2017 that will travel to four cities in China: Guilin, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Beijing. This course focuses on the foundational assumptions that led to the development of distinctive features of Chinese culture in terms of philosophy and religion. We will explore philosophical and religious issues in terms of texts and practices, and how these classical assumptions are and are not still in play today. Throughout the course, students will become conversant in the three main influential traditions of China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism

Student Criteria:

Enrollment in the 6 credit philosophy and religious studies course Summer A 2017. This course will also have the foreign culture (FC) designation.

Categories:
International

The Spanish Study Abroad Program at the University of Cantabria offers advanced Spanish students the opportunity of studying language and culture at one of the 15 top universities in Spain. The program consists of five weeks in Santander, during which the students take an intensive language course taught by accredited instructors from the University of Cantabria, and a three-credit-hour culture class with a UNF faculty member (María Ángeles Fernández Cifuentes). Students will earn six hours of credit for the completion of the two courses. Classes will meet four days a week (Monday-Thursday) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The students benefit from a rigorous academic program while they also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in Spanish culture. Students will also travel to Burgos, Bilbao, Peñafiel and Segovia to view firsthand examples of art and architecture.

Student Criteria:

Advanced level Spanish students

Categories:
International

For the study of art and art history, the museums and archaeological sites of Rome, Florence and Pompeii are incomparable.  The 2016 program will be scheduled for approximately six weeks  and will include an introduction to Italian language and culture in Massa before traveling to Rome. Students will have the rich experience of living in Rome where the majority of the program is centered. The living arrangements are in the St. John’s University Rome campus with dormitory facilities and kitchenettes so students have to learn how to shop with Italians, thus being exposed to an added dimension of Italian life.  St.John’s is located near the Lepanto metro stop and students learn to utilize the transportation system. They will also have many opportunities to study and present oral reports in some of the most important museums in the world including the Naples Archaeological Museum (where the majority of the finds from the Vesuvian sites buried in 79 are housed), the Vatican Museums (home not only to the Sistine Chapel but works from antiquity to the modern) to the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Uffizi and the Accademia in Florence.  They will meet contemporary Italian artists MArco Zeno, Rodolfo LAcquaniti and Rossella Vasta.

Student Criteria:

Students must have at least a 2.75 GPA and must be of at least sophomore standing.

Students will be interviewed by the Academic Director of the program.

Students are encouraged to take either  ARH 2000, ARH 2050 or ARH 2051.

Students are thoroughly briefed about the physical rigors of the program with its demands of walking, climbing stairs and maneuvering cobblestones and archeological sites and the intensive nature of the lecture and class schedules

Categories:
International

The purpose of this course is to advance students’ understanding of nursing and health care from a global perspective. Thailand is an excellent place for global health transformational learning because it provides students an encounter with a very different culture and an opportunity to discover the beliefs, values and experiences that they share. This is particularly relevant as they compare and contrast Thai traditional health care with the Western medicine that we practice.

 

Students take a course at the Chiang Mai University Faculty of Nursing where they learn about nursing education, traditional Thai health care and community-based faculty research. Associated field experiences involve interacting with Thai faculty, students and community workers as they visit community hospitals and clinics, village centers, local homes and a traditional Thai massage school. This study abroad experience also includes a short stay in a rural village, where they will have the opportunity to understand the activities of the Population and Community Development Association through interaction with the hill tribes. To get to the village they take a boat, ride elephants and hike through lush Thai forest. Translators who speak English, Thai and the local dialect of the hill tribes accompany them. 

Student Criteria:

Nursing students

Categories:
International

The Strasbourg French language and culture study abroad program consists of five weeks in France during which the UNF students have French classes 15 hours a week (total 60 contact hours) where native speaker instructors teach entirely in French and their classmates come from all over the world. They live with French families with whom they take two meals a day, so their immersion experience continues outside the classroom, and real cultural contact fills the greater part of most days as they navigate the city independently on foot and on public transportation (and most travel outside the city is by train). Three to four afternoons a week, Dr. Schwam-Baird teaches the culture class (Faces of France), which examines social, political, and cultural issues in contemporary France with insight into their historical context, and which includes the perspective of France as part of the construction of Europe. As part of the culture course, students participate in many excursions such as afternoon visits to places of interest in the city, one-day excursions in the region around Strasbourg, and a long weekend in Paris.

Student Criteria:

The program is open to all majors and minors, but in order to participate, students must have the equivalent of a year of college French study.

Students must be in good academic standing, but there is no specific GPA minimum.

Categories:
International

It is proposed through this Pediatric Adaptive Technology Community Based Project TLO that engineering students will work as part of an interdisciplinary team on the development of adaptive technology targeted for young children with cortical blindness. As part of this program, students will enroll in a special topics course where they will be exposed to a very unique interdisciplinary and transformational community based experience. As part of this course they will attend lectures providing basic introductory information in neuroscience, child development, rehabilitation provision models such as International Classification of function (ICF) and Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT), developmental disabilities, and assistive technology principles including assessment, construction, and design. They will form interdisciplinary teams, and design, construct, and test appropriate assistive technology that address the needs for identified children with developmental disabilities in the community. Students will also be exposed to a clinical observation period. During this period students will meet with rehabilitation pediatric therapists and observe therapy sessions. In addition, students will attend a presentation by Dr. Cole Galloway, a recognized expert in early pediatric mobility and the director of the mobility and design studio at the University of Delaware

Student Criteria:

This TLO is open to engineering and physical therapy students. 

Students will be interviewed

Categories:
Service Learning

This Transformational Learning Opportunity (TLO) will provide 10 students enrolled in CGN 3930 or CGN 4931, Water Resources Field Camp, opportunities to participate in direct career-relevant field experiences, interact with a water resources science and engineering learning community, and experience a wider global awareness of the tensions between infrastructure and the environment.  The proposed TLO will support UNF strategic objectives regarding student global awareness.  The proposed course will include traditional classroom meetings and an intensive field experience that will be the focus of the TLO.  The proposed field experience will take place in mid-July 2016 with field base camps situated in Portland, Oregon and Newport, Oregon. Over a 10 day period students will participate in 5 field trips to an array of engineering projects focused upon water resources and environmental management. Project sites to be visited include Bonneville Lock & Dam, Spirit Lake at Mount St. Helens National Monument, Wasco Dam, Mount Hood, Newport Harbor, and the Cape Perpetua National Marine Reserve. The field visits will take the students through the hydrologic cycle and follow rainfall runoff or snow melt from the mountains to the sea.  Along the way, Dr. Brown and the subject-matter experts will illustrate important linkages between water resources infrastructure (e.g. dams, harbors, tunnels) and their environmental effects.  In this way, each student will develop a better grasp of the importance of balancing the two.

Student Criteria:

This TLO is for students enrolled in CGN 3930 or CGN 4931. Graduate students enrolled in CGN 6900 will also be considered although these students will not be eligible for undergraduate TLO scholarship funds. Graduate Students can contact the graduate school directly about applying for individual awards.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

The main goal of this TLO is to give students an authentic, immersive experience in biomedical research. The UNF Biology department offers coursework in the areas of Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry. These courses give students a firm educational foundation in the core concepts of Biology and prepare them for medical, professional, and graduate programs. However, traditional classroom experiences cannot fully replicate true hands-on research. Biomedical researchers must be comfortable “working without a net”, unsure of where the research will take them, but confident enough in their skills and abilities to fully explore complex biological pathways. It is only through doing research that students can learn to rebound from failed experiments and explore science that has no “right answer”, unlike what they may be accustomed to in their coursework. This will broaden student's views of science beyond that of black and white answers, to more fully understand the nuances of medical research .Students will work directly with Dr. Ellis in the research lab from the summer of 2016 through the 2016-2017 academic year and will be expected to commit a minimum of 6 hours a week to this project in blocks of 3 hours apiece.

Student Criteria:

This TLO will be open to students who have successfully completed either BSC2012 (General Biology III) or MCB2010 (Microbiology).

A background in Biology (i.e. Biology major) is preferred, but not required.

Factors that will be considered include success in relevant coursework, career interest in the biomedical sciences, and willingness and ability to commit large segments of time (6- 9 hours a week in blocks of at least 3 hour increments) to the TLO experience.

 

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

This TLO will include a number of off site visits, which will provide experiential learning to the students, on top of their regular chemistry curriculum. The outcome of the combined effort would be a better understanding of the materials science research area, and more importantly how different STEM disciplines and expertise are working together to improve the properties of materials. The Spring 2016 TLO will run independently of a course. Dr. Lampropoulos is scheduled to teach inorganic chemistry and inorganic chemistry lab in the spring, and students will be recruited from these two courses. 

Student Criteria:

Dr. Lampropoulos is scheduled to teach inorganic chemistry and inorganic chemistry lab in the spring, and students will be recruited from these two course

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

The goal of the proposed TLO is to employ marine natural product drug discovery as a tool for introducing cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to undergraduates. This TLO will afford five UNF undergraduate students with hands-on training in the scientific inquiry process. This TLO will yield student outcomes that include enhancement of analytical, communication, and critical thinking skills as well as increased global awareness. These TLO outcomes will prepare students for a wide variety of careers (e.g. medicine, research). UNF has a large group of Biology and Chemistry majors with interests in biomedical and marine research, and this TLO aims to enhance educational experiences for this group.

Student Criteria:

UNF biology, chemistry students, and other majors interested in biomedical research. Students are expected to register for at least four credit hours of CHM4910 (Chemical Research), and have at least 9-12 hours/week to devote to research.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research

 

This Transformational Learning Opportunity will utilize the St. Johns River, a vital community asset, to build connections between diverse academic disciplines. Through a combination of curricular and co-curricular experiences students will develop a deep understanding of the St. Johns River, its importance to surrounding communities and the issues threatening the River’s future. As a result, students will develop a sense of place, undergo personal growth and have an opportunity to explore research opportunities and potential career fields. 

Student Criteria:

The St. Johns River Experience is open to all undergraduate students, with a focus on recruiting freshman and sophomores. This emphasis is aligned with the Environmental Center strategic focus on recruiting students that exhibit leadership potential early in their academic career and retraining those students by offering a set of unique experiential learning and research opportunities.

Categories:
Field Experience
Undergraduate Research

The research methodology utilized in this project will provide an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to learn and understand new and exciting tools that are being employed in biomedical research. This TLO will allow students the chance to learn cell culture and molecular genetic techniques they would not ordinarily learn in the classroom. Furthermore, students will use these skills to address important questions in skeletal muscle biology. Ultimately, this TLO will afford students the opportunity to conduct independent projects that will include characterizing the regulation of genes that are differentially expressed during muscle wasting. The initial work for this project will occur in my laboratory at UNF during the 2016-2017 academic year. Then immediately after the 2017 Spring semester, in collaboration with Dr. Xiao-Fan Wang, Dr. Tso-Pang Yao, and Dr. Monte Willis, an additional phase of the project will be conducted during a 10-12 day trip to Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Wang, Dr. Yao, and Dr. Willis are leaders in the field of molecular and cell biology, molecular skeletal muscle physiology and molecular cardiac muscle physiology and they have generously offered space in their laboratories for UNF students to observe and learn techniques essential for conducting cell biology, molecular muscle physiology and molecular genomic studies, which cannot currently be accomplished at UNF. Providing UNF students with a research project that requires them to design and execute experiments in the laboratory helps develop an important sense of ownership and independence.

Student Criteria:

Students who are majors in Biology and have an interest in the biomedical field will be given preference, however any student who is able to effectively demonstrate and articulate their reasons for wanting to participate in this program will also be given an opportunity.

Students who are freshman or sophomores will have to successfully complete General Biology I in order to participate.

Students who are juniors will be required to have successfully completed General Biology I and at least one of the other upper division courses listed above.

Categories:
Undergraduate Research